IS THE ISRAELI MILITARY USING
DEPLETED-URANIUM WEAPONS AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS?
International Action Center calls for an investigation

By John Catalinotto and Sara Flounders,
Depleted Uranium Education Project of the International ActionCenter

27 Nov 2000-- The International Action Center calls upon
international organizations,NGOs,
environmental and health organizations to investigate theIsraeli militarys use of prohibited weapons in the West Bank andGaza, and to mobilize to stop it. These weapons
include dumdumbullets and CS gas. The IAC
believes it also includes depleted- uranium weapons.

The effect of dumdum bullets and CS gas is immediate, easily shownand obvious. Using radioactive and toxic
depleted-uranium weapons isan additional
crime that has an insidious long-term effect, not only oncombatants and civilians in the vicinity, but over a broad area and tothe general environment, as has been shown by the
Pentagonsmassive use of DU weapons in
Yugoslavia and especially in Iraq.

The International Action Centers own investigative team on Nov.
1and 2 saw Israeli helicopter gun ships
firing into densely populatedareas.
According to international law these attacks on civilian areasare war crimes--as is the long-term destruction of
the environmentfrom DU contamination.

Mobilizing investigations, public challenges and mass protests
againstthe use of DU weapons can stop this
crime against humanity.

The aim of this paper is to show with supporting data that it is
crediblethat the Israeli military is using
DU weapons in the OccupiedTerritories. We
know that Israel is DU-armed and capable, andshielding
on Israeli tanks is DU-reinforced. The IAC urges scientists,doctors and soldiers who know of the use of DU
shells to comeforward with definitive proof
that the Israeli military has at leasttested
DU weapons in its attacks on Palestinian offices and homes. Inaddition, we urge environmental and other
organizations to demand anaccounting from
these authorities.

It will also show how following similar Pentagon or U.S. governmentdenials regarding test-firing DU weapons in Puerto
Rico, OkinawaPanama and south Korea,
revelations and public pressure have forcedadmissions
and in some cases have won pledges to stop firing DUweapons. In Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and in the Persian/Arabian Gulfregion this pressure has led to international
investigations and legalactions against DU
use.

DU IS PART OF ISRAELI ARSENAL

U.S. arms make up the major part of the Israeli arsenal and Israel
hasbeen the number one recipient of U.S.
arms aid for decades. TheseU.S. weapons
include the M1 Abrams tankwhich fires DU shellsand is armored with DU-reinforced metal. The Apache and theCobra helicopter gun ships are also equipped to
fire DU shells. Sincethis latest Intifada
started, the U.S. has shipped Israel the newestand most advanced multi-mission attack helicopters in the U.S.inventory, as reported in the Jerusalem
Post. These were Apachehelicopters.

The IAC delegation witnessed Israeli attack helicopters, which peopledescribed to them as Apache
helicopters from the U.S., firing shellsand
rockets at targets in and around Ramallah on Nov. 1. They thenexamined a small office used by the Fatah
organization that theprojectiles hit and
destroyed.

The following day they saw machine guns on tanks being fired atPalestinian youths in Ramallah armed only with
rocks and slingshots.They also visited a
Fatah office near Nablus that Israeli rockets hadhit
the night before.

The IAC delegation gathered up shell casings and metal fragments inthese areas. As they were preparing to leave from
Ben GurionAirport in Tel Aviv, members of
the IAC delegation were stopped,searched and
interrogated. The shell casings and metal fragmentswere
confiscated. While this prevented the IAC from arranging itsown tests, it made them even more suspicious that
the Israeli forceswere using DU shells and
trying to hide it.

Because of its great density, DU is also used to stabilize or balanceairplanes and missiles, including the Tomahawk
Cruise missile. Whenthe missile explodes, or
should the plane crash, the DU burns and isreleased
into the air just as it is when DU shells hit steel. DU is alsoused to shield tanks, including the M1 Abrams tank
used by the U.S.and Israel. After 32
continuous days, or 64 12-hour days, the amountof
radiation a tank driver receives to his head from overhead armorwill exceed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
standard for publicwhole-body annual
exposure to man-made sources of radiation.

Whether from shells or from the scrapings from tanks moving aroundthe countryside, radioactive materials enter into
the land, the waterand the whole food chain,
contaminating the densely populated WestBank
and Gaza, where water is a scarce resource. Wantonradioactive
contamination of this region is a crime against all ofhumanity and a threat to the entire region now and for generations tocome.

According to the LAKA Foundation in the Netherlands, the Israeliarmy first used depleted-uranium weapons in the
1973 war, underdirection from U.S.
advisers.

The same 1995 report from the U.S. Army Environmental PolicyInstitute mentioned earlier asserts that Israel is
one of the countrieswith DU munitions in its
arsenal. These included at that time at leastBahrain,
Egypt, France, Greece, Kuwait, Pakistan Russia, SaudiArabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, as wellas the United States. This assertion has been
repeated in the ChristianScience Monitor,
the Jerusalem Post, the San Francisco Chronicleand
other newspapers.

Israel has a nuclear-weapons program more developed than that ofany country except the five major nuclear powers.
For exposing thisnuclear program, Mordechai
Vanunu, a nuclear-weapons technician,was
kidnapped by the Mossad and held in solitary confinement 14years.

Given Israels own nuclear program and well-developed militaryindustry, the likelihood is that Israel is a
manufacturer of DUammunition. The firm
Rafael of Israel is named in numerous reportsas
being such a manufacturer. But even if this were not the case,Israel has been able to import DU weapons from the
United States.

DANGERS FROM DEPLETED URANIUM

DU, much like natural uranium from which it hardly differs, is bothradioactive and toxic. DU is a waste product of
the process thatproduces enriched uranium
for use in atomic weapons and nuclearpower
plants. Over a billion pounds of DU exists in the United Statesand must be safely stored or disposed of by the
Department ofEnergy. With its half-life of
4.5 billion years, the radioactivity of DU iseffectively
eternal.

It is so abundant it has been given away to arms manufacturers.Because it is extremely dense1.7 times as
dense as lead--whenturned into a metal DU
can be used to make a shell that easilypenetrates
steel. In addition it is pyrophoric, that is, it burns whenheated by friction from when it strikes steel.

When DU burns, this spews tiny particles of poisonous andradioactive uranium oxide in the air. The small
particles can beingested or inhaled by
humans for miles around, and even one particle,when
lodged in a vital organ, can be dangerous.

The Pentagon tested DU shells at various sites around the U.S., andused it openly in combat against Iraq during the
1991 Gulf war. Atleast 600,000 pounds of DU
and uranium dust was left around Iraq,Kuwait
and Saudi Arabia by U.S. and British forces during that war.

Although the U.S. government and military continue to deny orminimize the environmental and health dangers from
depleted uraniumweapons, they themselves
have to admit these dangers exist. A 1995report
from the U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute, entitled theHealth and Environmental Consequences of
Depleted Uranium inthe U.S. Army
stated, If DU enters the body, it has the potential togenerate significant medical consequences. The
risks associated withDU in the body are
both chemical and radiological.... Personnel insideor
near vehicles struck by DU penetrators could receive significantinternal exposures.

DU is also considered at least a contributing cause to the 130,000reported cases of "Gulf War Syndrome.
Numerous internationalstudies in Britain,
the United States and in Iraq have linked Gulf WarSyndrome
to the use of radioactive weapons in the bombing. Thechronic symptoms of this ailment range from sharp increases incancers to memory loss chronic pain, fatigue and
birth defects in theveterans children.

The damage to the Iraqi people was even more severe. A symposiumin Baghdad in December 1998 found higher rates of
childhoodleukemia and other cancers in
people living around Basra, Iraq, andattributed
this to DU contamination. Data was presented on thepattern
of a more than five-fold increase in many cancers, a ten-foldincrease in uterine cancer and a sixteen fold
increase in ovariancancer and the high
incidence of still births and congenital deformities,especially in Southern Iraq.

U.S. USE OF DU WEAPONS WORLDWIDE

The only admitted use of DU in combat has been in the 1991 waragainst Iraq, the 1995 NATO bombing of Bosnia and
the massiveNATO assault on Yugoslavia in
1999. There have, however, beenother
instances when the Pentagon has test-fired DU shells in such away that it has endangered nearby civilians.
Besides the many testsconducted within the
United States, these include DU testing at sitesin
Vieques, Puerto Rico; Okinawa, Japan; Panama and South Korea.

VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO

Vieques, an island near and part of Puerto Rico, has been a Pentagontarget-practice site since 1940. For the past few
years and especiallysince an errant U.S.
bomb killed a Vieques resident in April 1999,people
in Vieques and all Puerto Rico have mobilized to stop thetesting on that island. As part of this mass mobilization, they havedemanded that the U.S. Navy fulfill its
responsibility to the localenvironment and
clean up depleted-uranium shells it fired on the island.

While first denying it did such testing, in January 2000, Navyspokespeople admitted firing 263 shells reinforced
with DU duringpractice runs in Vieques,
claiming they did so "by accident." They saidNavy forces were able to recover 57 rounds, leaving 206. Removingthe DU contamination has remained one of the
demands of themovement in Vieques. Dr. Doug
Rokke, former Director of thePentagon's
Depleted Uranium Project, has condemned the Navysuse of DU in Vieques and called in a Feb. 9, 2000 news release forcomplete environmental remediation of all
affected terrain andmedical care be provided
for all affected residents of Vieques."

OKINAWA

The U.S. government never notified Japan it was testing DUweapons near Okinawa. Yet it turned out that a U.S
Marine CorpsAV-8B Harrier jet in late 1995
had test fired 1,520 rounds of DUammunition.
The Pentagon finally admitted this in an article publishedin the Washington Times on Feb. 10, 1997. This created such anational outrage including angry denunciations in
the Japanese Dumathat the U.S. government
apologized, agreed to remove the weaponsfrom
bases on Okinawa and make an extensive clean-up of the site.

As reported in the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun, Pentagonspokesperson Kenneth Bacon said the U.S. military
has moved alldepleted-uranium bullets
deployed in Okinawa to south Korea. Healso
reportedly said that in south Korea, the shells are closer to a"potential battlefield.

According to the Mainichi Shimbun article, a South Korean foreignministry source said the U.S.-puppet government in
Seoul had notbeen informed of the transfer.
"If it is the case that the move wasmade
to avoid further controversy in Japan, it could disturb sentimentsof the [south Korean] people," the source
reportedly said.

SOUTH KOREA

And it did. U.S. Air-Force veteran turned peace activist during thewar against Vietnam Brian Willson reports on his
May 2000 visit toSouth Korea:

For Example, in May 2000, Koreans discovered that U.S.Air ForceA-10s were practice bombing at a 50-year-old
bombing/strafing range(Koon Ni) near the
village of Maehyang Ri, fifty-five miles southwestof
Seoul. On May 8, due to an in-flight emergency, one of the A-10squickly dropped six bombs outside of the
prescribed bombing area,damaging some houses
in the village and injuring seven residents.Local
Korean villagers have been vehemently opposed to the use oftheir historic farmland for U.S. bombing and strafing practice eversince the Korean government first provided the
5900-acre Koon Nisite free of charge to the
U.S. military in 1951. The Koreangovernment
does not even collect from the U.S. the utility feesentailed for operating the range, now leased by the Pentagon to theworld's largest arm's manufacturer, Lockheed
Martin. When peopleinquired into the purpose
of the A-10s, and asked for explanations forthe
errant bombing, they discovered that A-10s were heavily used inKosovo and Serbia delivering DU-coated weapons.The local people of Maehyang Ri
demanded an answer from theKorean government
and U.S. military in Korea as to whether DUweapons
were being stored in Korea or used in any way duringpractice bombings. Though at first officials denied presence of DU,incessant pressure by doubting Korean people
finally elicited anadmission from officials
of both the Korean government and U.S.forces
that, indeed, DU was present in Korea. It had been movedthere in February 1997 from bases in Okinawa, after the Japanesecomplained of its presence there. And though
Korean and U.S.officials denied that they
used DU in practices at the Koon Ni range,they
did admit that on two occasions in 1997, DU weapons wereinadvertently expended in Korea.

PANAMA

According to an article in the Aug. 20, 1997 Christian ScienceMonitor, Rick Stauber, A member of the
seven-person team thatprepared the US
Department of Defense's report on leftoverordnance
at three military firing ranges in Panama, says during hisinvestigation he was handed a report, listing all US weapon testingfrom the 1960s to the early 1990s, that showed
that 120mm depleted- uranium projectiles were fired on Empire Range.

At first, U.S. Ambassador William Hughs denied Staubers report.When the Fellowship of Reconciliation brought this
to the attention ofPanamanian daily
newspapers, the strong reaction forced Washingtonto
admit that the military had at least stored DU shells in Panama totest their deterioration in tropical climates.
Stauber, a militaryconsultant, said that
they would then be obliged to test fire at leastsome
of the shells to see if they were functional.

KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA

Early in NATOs war against Yugoslavia, on April 1, 1999, theInternational Action Center sent out a news
release charging the U.S.with using DU
weapons against Yugoslavia. While the Pentagon wastrying
to avoid comment on this, Pentagon spokespeople had alreadytold the media that the A-10 Warthog anti-tank plane was being usedagainst Yugoslav tanks in Kosovo. Finally
pressure on this questionfrom the media
forced the Pentagon to acknowledge use of DU.

Still, NATO headquarters and especially the Pentagon withheldcooperation with investigations of DU
contamination of Kosovo.OnOct. 14, 1999, a United Nations official who
chairs the task forceinvestigating the
impact on the environment of the 78-day U.S.- NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia
said that NATOofficials had refused to
cooperate regarding their use of depleted- uranium weapons. Pekka Haavisto, task-force
chairperson, said histeam was unable to
determine the extent of pollution caused byuranium-tipped
weapons. He said NATO refused either to admitusing
the weapons or to cooperate with the task force.

DU rounds were used whenever the A-10 engaged armor duringOperation Allied Force. Therefore, it was used
throughout Kosovoduring approximately 100
missions A total of approximately 31,000rounds
of DU ammunition was used in operation Allied Force. Themajor focus of these operations was in an area west of the Pec-
Dakovica-Prizren highway, in the area surrounding Klina, in the areaaround Prizren and in an area to the north of a
line joining Suva Rekaand Urosevac. However
many missions using DU also took placeoutside
these areas.

According to articles written October 2000 by Rainer Rupp in theBerlin daily, Junge Welt, and by British
journalist Felicity Arbuthnot,concern over
DU dangers have created problems involving both UNpersonnel
and NATO-country troops occupying Kosovo.

Last week [Oct 14-20] the French government followed its
Italiancounterpart and launched an
investigation of the effects of spentdepleted
uranium shells on its soldiers in Kosovo. Two Italian K-FOR(occupation) soldiers who were stricken with cancer and who showedsymptoms similar to those with Gulf War Syndrome
are to be flownfrom Kosovo to Rome in the
near future.

The Rome military prosecutor followed his colleagues in Milan,
Turinand Venice and set underway an
investigation of the effects of DU- shells on Italian troops in Kosovo. With this in the
background thePortuguese defense minister
has decided to withdraw the Portuguesetroop
contingent from Kosovo. (Junge Welt, Oct. 24)

Notice that in all these cases the military authorities at first
eitherstonewalled or denied that DU was
being used, then wound up havingto admit it.

ISRAELI EL AL JET

A flaming crash of an El Al cargo jet in Bijlmer, a suburb ofAmsterdam on Oct. 4, 1992, killing 43 people has
been the target ofongoing research. The
health consequences for people in a wholesection
of Amsterdam has created an ongoing movement of theDutch
Greens on the chemical and radiological toxicity of depleteduranium.

The El Al Boeing 747 jet had on board tons of chemicals, flammableliquids, substances used in the manufacture of
nerve gas and 1,500kilograms of DU in the
form of counterweights. Both the nerve gaschemicals
and the DU have long been a topic of debate. The DutchMinistry of Defense report Health risks during exposure to
uraniumdocumented the radiotoxic
effects of DU in the human body.

THE GULF WAR

U.S. veterans organizations have campaigned to demand investigationand compensation for their extremely high
incidence of chronicsicknesses among Gulf
War veterans. The U.S. government hasdenied
their claims.

IS ISRAEL USING DU IN COMBAT?

Some may argue that because the Israelis are not firing againsttanksthe strongest military justification
for using DU shellsbutagainst unarmed
or at the most lightly armed and virtually unprotectedopponents, there is no special reason for them to be using DU shells.

This is true. But the same could be said for U.S. forces in Vieques,Panama, Okinawa and south Korea, yet DU weapons
were tested inall those places. Like the
Pentagon brass, the Israeli general staffwould
want to try out their weapons under all conditions, especially incombat. Now that they are firing at homes and
offices in an attemptto punish the Fatah
leadership, they would want to see if DU shellspenetrate
concrete as they do steel and if this makes a difference inbattle.

The Israeli military has already shown its racist contempt for thePalestinians by firing to maim thousands and kill
hundreds of youngpeople protesting the
occupation of their country, people armed in thegreat
majority with stones and slingshots. As of Nov. 20, over 240people have been killed and over 8,000 wounded.

And the Israeli officers have a strong reason to use DU-shieldedtanks. They want the Israeli soldiers and their
families to think thatthey are invulnerable
in their tanks and armored personal carriersshielded
with DU armor. If the troops grow ill months or years laterfrom their constant exposure to radiation, that is no longer a politicalproblem for the generals. The same is true when
they handle shellsand fire rounds from tank
guns.

The Israeli peace movement and the families of the troops, shouldknow that the illusion of invincibility comes at a
price. There hasalready been the beginning
of resistance among individual Israelitroops
to playing the role of oppressor. This movement shouldseriously consider the dangers of DU.

The first step to exposing and stopping this crime and its long-termimpact is to start a serious investigation of
Israeli use of depleted- uranium weapons.

Sara Flounders and John Catalinotto are editors and contributors
tothe book Metal of Dishonor: Depleted
Uranium and organizers ofthe Depleted
Uranium Education Project based at the InternationalAction Center in New York City. Flounders returned Nov. 3, 2000,from a five-day fact-finding trip to the West
Bank and Gaza.

The DU Education Project of the IAC is not a scientific researchorganization. But it has based its published
material on the work ofmany prominent
scientists and anti-nuclear organizations to create anawareness of the Pentagons reckless disregard for all human life andfor the future even in their limited and
conventional wars against smalland
developing nations. The International Action Center is an
organization committed tobuilding resistance
to U.S. militarism, war and racism. The IACattempts
to link together through information and concrete solidaritymany different struggles.

To make a tax-deductible donation,go tohttp://www.peoplesrightsfund.org

IS ISRAEL USING DU SHELLS?
U.S. ANTI-WAR GROUP DEMANDS INVESTIGATION

By John Catalinotto

Nov. 12, 2000

A major anti-war organization in the United States
is calling for an international investigation
of Israeli use of depleted uranium shells in
its attempt to repress the Al- Aqsa Intifada--the uprising of Palestinians against the
occupation.

The IAC is calling upon "international organizations, NGOs,
environmental and health organizations to
investigate the Israeli military's use of prohibited
weapons in the West Bank and Gaza, and to mobilize
to stop it. These weapons include dumdum bullets, CS
gas and depleted uranium weapons."

Sara Flounders, Co-Director of the IAC was in
occupied Palestine from Oct. 28-Nov. 2, 2000, as part
of a four-person IAC delegation. The delegation was on a
fact-finding mission and also delivered medical supplies to
Palestinian clinics and hospitals in the territories.

"Such use of DU weapons," says
Flounders, "adds to the crimes the
Israeli forces are committing against the Palestinian
population. Israeli helicopter gun ships are firing
into densely populated areas. According to international law these attacks on civilian
areas are war crimes, as is the long-term destruction of the environment from depleted uranium contamination.

"The radioactive materials enter into the
land, the water and the whole food chain,
contaminating the densely- populated West Bank and Gaza, where water is a scarce resource. The wanton radioactive contamination of
this region is a crime against all of
humanity and a threat to the entire region
now and for generations to come.

"We urge scientists, doctors and soldiers who
have handled these weapons to come forward
with information. Information supplied this
way in Puerto Rico, Okinawa and south Korea recently
have helped mobilize against DU use and put the Pentagon
on the defensive. This crime and its long-term impact
must be fully exposed and stopped."

PENTAGON HID DU USE

The draft of a paper on DU the IAC intends to
release Nov. 16 shows that in Vieques, Puerto Rico, and in Okinawa, Panama and south Korea, the Pentagon had either
kept secret or denied using DU until popular
organizations challenged the U.S. military.

Following the protests, the Pentagon was forced to
admit DU use. In Okinawa the U.S. apologized
and promised not only to no longer use DU
but also to begin to clean up spent DU shells.

In addition, movements in France, Italy and other
NATO countries occupying Kosovo have sparked
official investigations of the dangers their
troops face from exposure to DU from shells
fired by U.S. planes during the 1999 war.
There are reports that the Portuguese government will
withdraw its troops because of DU dangers.

Flounders told how the IAC delegation witnessed
"Israeli attack helicopters, which
people described to us as 'Apache' helicopters
from the U.S., firing shells and rockets at targets
in and around Ramallah. We then examined a small office used by the Fatah organization
that the projectiles hit and destroyed."

ISRAELI AUTHORITIES SEIZED IAC'S MATERIALS

"We also saw Israeli tanks and other armored
vehicles firing machine-gun rounds and larger
projectiles at youthful demonstrators in
Ramallah," Flounders added. "We collected some
of the shell casings and metal fragments from the different
target areas to bring back to the United States for
evaluation and testing."

Flounders said: "As we were preparing to
leave from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv,
members of our delegation were stopped,
searched and interrogated. The shell casings and metal
fragments were confiscated. While this prevented us from
doing our own tests, it made us even more suspicious that
the Israeli forces were using DU shells."

A 1995 report from the U.S. Army Environmental
Policy Institute asserts that Israel is one
of the countries with DU munitions in its
arsenal. Given Israel's own nuclear program
and well-developed military industry, the IAC believes
Israel is quite likely a manufacturer of its own DU
ammunition.

The "Apache" and the Cobra
helicopters--both used by the Israeli armed
forces--are equipped to fire DU shells. Also, the
Israeli Sabra tank is modeled on the Abrams M1A1 tank, which
is also capable of firing DU shells.

DU is a waste product of the process that produces
enriched uranium for use in atomic weapons
and nuclear power plants. Because it is
extremely dense, when turned into a metal DU can
be used to make a shell that penetrates steel. It's also pyrophoric;
that is, it burns when heated by friction when it
strikes steel.

When DU burns, it spews tiny particles of
poisonous and radioactive uranium oxide into
the air. The small particles can be ingested
or inhaled by humans for miles around. Even one
particle, when lodged in a vital organ, can be dangerous.

At least 600,000 pounds of DU and uranium dust was
left around Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia by
U.S. and British forces during the 1991 war
against Iraq. A symposium in Baghdad in
December 1998 found higher rates of childhood leukemia
and other cancers in people living around Basra, and
attributed this to DU contamination. For some cancers the
rates were 5 to 10 times higher than normal.

A REASON TO REFUSE DUTY

DU is also considered at least a contributing
cause to the 120,000 reported cases of
"Gulf War Syndrome." Numerous international
studies in Britain, the United States and Iraq have
linked Gulf War Syndrome to the use of radioactive weapons
in the bombing. The chronic symptoms of this ailment range
from sharp increases in cancers to memory loss, chronic
pain, fatigue and birth defects in the veterans' children.

While the Pentagon continues to deny any great
dangers from DU, the 1995 U.S. Army
Environmental Policy Institute study, entitled
"Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium
in the U.S. Army," stated: "If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant
medical consequences. The risks associated
with DU in the body are both chemical and
radiological.... Personnel inside or near vehicles
struck by DU penetrators could receive significant internal
exposures."

DU is also used to make tank armor and is used in
heavily armored Israeli vehicles. Exposure to
radiation for those remaining in the tanks
for a long time or from handling wea pons can
be another source of danger.

"Like the U.S. generals who are the main
supplier of Israeli weapons," said
Flounders, "the Israeli general staff are indifferent
to protecting the long-term health of their own rank-and-file
soldiers, not to speak of their racist contempt
for the Palestinians.

"For groups inside Israel who oppose the
repression of Palestinians, challenging DU
use could increase the conscientious
resistance from individual Israeli troops that has
already surfaced."